For military operations, armored vehicles may be equipped with turret-mounted firing devices. The turrets of the armored vehicles may also be equipped with a drive system that enables an operator to rotate the turret when aiming the weapon. An operator may control the rotation of the turret through the use of various devices. One such device is a hand-operated joystick attached to a magnetic base with a metallic underside. The metallic underside of the hand-operated joystick provides the benefit of allowing the turret operator to position the joystick at a location on or within the vehicle. However, operators may need to remove at least one hand from the firing device to operate the joystick.
Another type of turret control device may be mounted to the hand grips of a weapon, such as a .50 caliber machine gun. This device allows an operator to control the rotation of the turret via his or her thumbs while holding the handles of the weapon. These types of control devices may be referred to as “thumbsticks.” Like the hand-operated joysticks, an operator may use his or her thumbs to rotate the turret. Such thumbsticks are often used with “butterfly” style hand grips, i.e., a pair of adjacent vertical grips that an operator grasps when operating the weapon. Thumbstick devices, however, may be impractical for use with other types of firing devices.
Therefore, a need exists for a control mechanism that is releasably mountable to the stock of a firing device.